Mary Kessell

Mary Merlin Kessell (13 November 1914 – 1977)[1] was a British figurative painter, illustrator, designer and war artist.

She spent six weeks in Germany, travelling to the recently liberated Bergen-Belsen concentration camp as well as other major cities including Berlin.

She produced charcoal drawings of refugees, primarily of women and children which she subsequently sold to the War Artists Advisory Committee.

[3][7] She spent six weeks in Germany, from 9 August 1945 to 20 September, where she made charcoal drawings of refugees as well as keeping a diary of her experiences.

She arrived later than the other war artists, including Doris Zinkeisen, Edgar Ainsworth and Eric Taylor, who had visited the camp immediately after its liberation.

[10] Convoys for the camp survivors to return to their home countries were being organized and Kessell witnessed a number of these departures.

[2] During her time in Germany, Kessell also visited Hamburg, Lübeck, Hanover, Kiel, Berlin and Potsdam also producing charcoal drawings in a similar style to those that she completed at Belsen.

[12] Although the scheme had a large and current selection of embroideries in a number of styles, foreign examples represented the collection's best needlework.